India launches mega-campaign to search for Chinese investments

Several top global and Chinese investors, based in Hong Kong, attended the seminar, said Prashant Agrawal Consul General of the Indian Consulate in Shanghai. The seminar was addressed by the Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Amitabh Kant, and officials of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The investors’ seminar is significant as Hong Kong is the gateway for Chinese investments, Farhad Forbes, Vice President of the CII, who led the Indian business delegation at the meet said.

Hong Kong has played a major role in routing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into China in the past and it could play the similar role for directing investments to India, he said. Because of its historical background as a former British colony, Hong Kong could make it easy for India to get investments, just as it played a centre for global investments for China, he said. Forbes said there was very positive response to ‘Make in India’ campaign as there is lot optimism about the positive change of investment environment in India.

He also said India could access big investments for infrastructure development as it is a member of China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank(AIIB) and the BRICS Bank. Kant will address a similar meeting in Beijing on Thursday, followed by another one in Shanghai on Friday.

The meetings comes ahead of Modi’s visit planned for May this year which is expected to give a major thrust to China’s proposed investments in India. Ajith Ranade, member of the CII core group on China, said India’s youth population and implementation of economic reforms by the Modi government with special focus on manufacturing provide a fertile ground for China to investment in India to gain better returns on its investments. As China has nearly $45 billion trade surplus with India, it could invest the same amount of money in India which could also fetch better returns.